Fontaines D.C. Almost Make A Classic

There is a long line of bands coming out of Ireland throughout rock history: U2, The Cranberries and The Pogues to name a few. Looking to stake their name on that list with their new album “Romance” is Dublin outfit Fontaines D.C. No, they do not have any ties to Washington DC. The D.C. stands for Dublin City, which goes to show how hard core these guys are about their native country. 

The crew met while studying at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute in Dublin and signed a record deal with Partisan Records in 2018. Since then the band has released four full length LPs. Their first two records are scattered with nauseating post punk basslines, syncopated drumming and just about a million references to being Irish. 

The first record “Dogrel,” was fun and moshable. While their second two records saw the band ruminating on their darkest feelings about love, life and of course, Ireland. Vocalist Grian Chatten declares on the opening track of 2020’s “A Hero’s Death,” “I don’t belong to anyone / I don’t wanna belong.” 

They leaned even more into their Irish tradition on the 2022 release “Skinty Fia,” a Gaelic title meaning “damnation of the deer.” “Skinty Fia” served as a catharsis of the guilt they felt after moving from Ireland to London. The product was some of their moodiest songs to date and an overall great album. 

However, in April 2024, the band ditched their lowkey indie aesthetic for a bright Y2K neon vomit one with the release of critically acclaimed single “Starburster.” This also marked their first release under XL Recordings. Alongside the single, they also announced the full length album “Romance.” . 

After a four-month-long rollout of singles that were to be featured on their record, they released “Romance” on Aug. 23, 2024. The singles were excellent; they released four in total, and everyone of them felt cohesive musically and thematically. 

The band was branching out of their Irish roots and capturing the universal theme of romance, hence the name. On top of that, they were starting to abandon their post-punk ideals for raging Y2K stadium rock. The album opens with the title track, which I would never listen to outside of the context of the album. It’s a slow and haunting track where Grian Chatten declares to the listener that “maybe romance is a place.” Take that as you will. 

Then the band finds their footing for a brilliant five song run, including singles “Starburster,” “Here’s The Thing,” and “In The Modern World.” I particularly love the screeching guitars and wheezy vocals on “Here’s The Thing.” The string and synth heavy anthem “Desire” and The Smiths-esque “Bug” are two other bright spots on the album. 

After “Bug,” most of the songs that weren’t released as singles are left standing and they were rather disappointing. Fontaines has never had any trouble with creating interesting moody music but they missed the mark on a few tracks here, like “Motorcyle Boy” and “Sundowner.” 

They finish the album strong with 90s grunge tune “Death Kink” and another previously heard single “Favourite.” I think there lies the main problem with the album. The rollout was intense. They released a little less than half the album before it came out and had worldwide listening parties prior to the release. It feels like the band had about seven really solid tracks and decided to release more than half of those as singles. This left me pretty disappointed with the album as a whole. 

I don’t think this is necessarily a Fontaines D.C. problem, but more of a music industry issue. I wish I had heard those singles together in an album sequence for the first time. Then again, those moody filler songs were excruciatingly boring in comparison to tunes like “Starburster” and “Here’s The Thing.” 

Fontaines have the potential to make rock music extremely popular again. Our generation is quite literally begging for some sort of rock revival. Maybe they’re on the cusp of starting it, but not quite yet, and at least not with “Romance.”